Bulletin:Thousands of US Troops May Be Deployed to Eastern Europe Shortly

Spending the weekend at Camp David,Maryland,US President Joseph R. Biden met with his national security team,some of them in person and others virtually,including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley,US Army.The President is considering sending up to 5,000 US troops to Eastern Europe shortly,in a move to bolster NATO deterrence of a Russian invasion of Ukraine,The New York Times reported.This would mark a change from the previous wait and see approach adopted by the administration. Some of the troops would come from the US,while others would be deployed from elsewhere in Europe.More warships and aircraft may also be moved into a deterrent posture.The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is already in the European theatre (the Mediterranean Sea) and is scheduled to begin Exercise Neptune Strike 22 tomorrow (see this blog's previous post). In related news,the Department of State is ordering families of US Embassy in Ukraine staff to return to the United States,while non-essential Embassy staff are being given the option to return home,in light of the possibility of a Russian invasion.As well,the State Department is strongly advising US citizens not to travel to Ukraine because of the war threat.

Afghan War Plan Unveiled - what to expect now

On 21 August 2017,President Donald Trump addressed the nation and the troops,who were represented by Soldiers at Fort Myer in Arlington,Virginia,to reveal his plan of action for the Afghan War.This strategy was long-awaited and finally delivered over a month later than promised.The President was very painstaking as he sorted through the frustrating issues,repeatedly asking questions about the options submitted to him by the Pentagon.In the end,having met with his national security team at Camp David,the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains,he elected to follow a more forceful approach than his predecessor,Barack Obama.*
Based on his remarks and those of knowledgeable sources,we may soon observe:
1.More intense air strikes,counterterror raids and more flexible rules of engagement;
2.More NATO and partner contributions;
3.Up to 5,000 more permanent US troops,plus possible temporary deployments;
4.More pressure on Pakistan to robustly eradicate terrorist camps on its territory;
5.No pre-set time limits,but conditions-based decisions on strategy instead.
Consider some of the President's statements from the address,which was praised by leading critic Senator John McCain,R-Arizona,and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg:
Today,20 US-designated foreign terrorist organisations are active in Afghanistan and Pakistan,the highest concentration in any region anywhere in the world.For its part,Pakistan often gives safe haven to agents of chaos,violence and terror.
Working alongside our allies,we will break their will;dry up their recruitment;keep them from crossing our borders;and,yes,we will defeat them,and we will defeat them handily.
We will not talk about numbers of troops or our plans for further military activities.Conditions on the ground,not arbitrary timetables,will guide our strategy from now on.America's enemies must never know our plans or believe they can wait us out.
I have already lifted restrictions the previous administration placed on our warfighters that prevented the Secretary of Defense and our commanders in the field from fully and swiftly waging battle against the enemy.Micromanagement from Washington,DC does not win battles.They're won in the field,drawing upon the judgement and expertise of wartime commanders and frontline Soldiers,acting in real-time and with real authority,and with a clear mission to defeat the enemy.
From now on,victory will have a clear definition:Attacking our enemies;obliterating ISIS (another word for ISIL);crushing al-Qaida;preventing the Taliban from taking over Afghanistan;and stopping mass terror attacks against America before they emerge.

US Soldier Killed in Afghanistan - counterterror operation

An American Soldier was killed and about seven others wounded in a clash with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan militants on 16 August 2017,US Forces Afghanistan in Kabul and the Utah National Guard said.The battle took place in Achin district of Nangarhar Province,a longtime stronghold of the Islamist extremists.All of the Americans were members of the Utah National Guard serving in a partnered operation with the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.
General John Nicholson,US Army,Commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan,said he wants to eradicate ISIL-K from Afghanistan by the end of the year.Eleven Americans have died in the Afghan War so far this year,already exceeding the death toll of ten for all of 2016.*
On Friday,US President Donald Trump is reportedly to hold a meeting about Afghanistan with his National Security Council at the presidential retreat,Camp David,Maryland.A Trump decision on strategy for the war is regarded as being past due on Capitol Hill.The Pentagon favours sending up to 4,000  US troops back to Afghanistan,a partial reversal of the 2014 widescale withdrawal.There are currently about 8400 permanently assigned US service members there.*
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the three key areas are Special Operations Forces,air power and better command and control by the ANDSF.It isn't going to be easy and nonviolent in Afghanistan this year or even next year.
NATO Allies  may be approached by the US for additional troop contributions once a strategy is set.

Confronting Chaos:Army Signal Corps Unit Prides Itself on Sensitive Mission

In 1944,the US Army established the 3364th Signal Service Battalion to be part of the worldwide support structure for garrison and field forces during World War II.It served ably in this capacity until 1946,receiving the Meritorious Unit Commendation streamer (American Theater).It was deactivated in 1946,but served again from 1959-68,redesignated as the 114th Signal Brigade and an Army Reserve Unit.Yet another life began in 2003,when it was reactivated as a unit of the 21st Signal Brigade and assigned the 50-year-old sensitive mission of the 1111th Signal Battalion,which was deactivated at that time.The 114th received for the first time its own distinctive unit colours,insignia and coat of arms.The coat of arms features an erect black stallion under a lighting bolt chevron,with the inscription "Signal Masters of the Rock" above and beneath the stallion.*
The current commander of the 114th,Lieutenant Colonel Jason M. Winterle,is familiar with sensitive missions,having served in Military Intelligence battalions in the Republic of Korea and at Fort Lewis,Washington state,which is now Joint Base Lewis-McChord.The mission of his present unit,the 114th Signal Battalion,based at Fort Detrick,Maryland,is to provide and defend Network Operations for theater-based communication systems,networks,and enterprise services and Visual Information services enabling Command and Control in Department of Defense and National Military Command Center (Raven Rock Mountain Complex) during full spectrum operations.*
The Raven Rock Mountain Complex-Site R,is also known as "the Underground Pentagon,""the Rock" and "a nuclear bunker."Indeed,it is buried inside the super-hard granite of Raven Rock Mountain,one of the three great blast-hardened bunkers of the US Government,the others being the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center,Virginia,and the US Air Force's Cheyenne Mountain Complex,Colorado (NORAD).All three were born of the Cold War fear of a nuclear apocalypse.*
Raven Rock,designated as both the Alternate Joint Communication Center and Alternate National Military Command Center (War Room),continues serving to this day as the Pentagon's nerve center in times of chaos or total war.Apart from the Joint Staff facility,the Army,Navy and Air Force each maintain an emergency center there.In a time of crisis,reportedly at least 2,000 troops and civilians could be housed in the self-contained,six-storey bunker for an extended period,its storerooms stocked to the hilt with MRE rations if fresh food runs out.Above each of the aboveground entrance portals that lead to the two-blast hardened doors,one for pedestrians and one for vehicles,are two weapons portals from which to repulse ground assaults.*
Topping the mountain is Site RT,which is an antenna farm with both microwave and satellite communication antennas,plus the buildings staffed by the 114th Signal Brigade.Also aboveground are a security center;fire station;entrance gates;helipad and wastewater treatment plant.*
Within the bunker are reportedly at least five three-storey buildings which house living quarters;two power plants;a Presidential Suite;a health clinic;chapel;mess hall and barber shop,along with a bowling alley and fitness center.There is even a small shop selling tee shirts,among other goods.A tunnel leads from the bunker to Camp David,the presidential retreat in nearby Maryland,and there are resevoirs for both industrial and domestic water.That being said,judging from photos spirited out of these sites,the overall ambience of such bunkers is professional,spartan and even gloomy in the spaces outside the buildings.After all,it is a doomsday bunker.All the more reason to admire the military men and women,as well as the steadfast civil servants,who are more than able and willing to serve there.*
Most famously,former Vice President Dick Cheney took refuge at Raven Rock following the 9-11 attacks,to keep him separate from President George W. Bush,so they wouldn't both have been be killed in an attack on Washington.

Special Report:NORAD Announces Test Flights Over DC Area

NORAD,the North American Aerospace Defense Command,has alerted the public that it will conduct a series of test flights over the Washington,DC area between 11pm and 5:30am on Monday and Tuesday nights,June 18-20.The exercises will be coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration and other authorities.F-16 Fighting Falcon interceptors,as well as a U.S. Coast Guard HH-65 Dolphin helicopter and civilian aircraft,will be participating in the drill.According to NORAD,the flights are a test of interception and identification operations,as well as a certification process for new command and control personnel.Since the 9-11 attacks,NORAD has been routinely patrolling the skies over New York,Washington and other big U.S. cities,as well as over Camp David,the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountain Park.The U.S. Coast Guard contributes heavily armed helicopters to Washington,DC's security.NORAD is the binational U.S.-Canadian military organisation that ensures the sovereignty of the continental airspace.

Combat Air Patrol Observed Near Camp David

When the president is in residence at the Camp David retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains,the normal restricted airspace over the camp is extended outward from 3 nautical miles,or 6.5 miles,to 10 nautical miles,or about 22 miles in diameter.As the president is at Camp David this weekend,I know that combat air patrols by NORAD military aircraft may be visible.Still,they are more often heard than seen as they carry out their part in Operation Noble Eagle,as the post 9-11 airspace protection mission is known.I indeed hear them as I walk near the Mason-Dixon line,the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania which lies beneath the expanded restricted airspace.The jet engine noise of a sudden becomes very loud.I pause and,looking up,regard the swift low passage of an F-15 Eagle,painted olive drab or gray,hurtling north toward the edge of the security perimeter with jaw-dropping speed.This is better than an air show;it is the real deal,a combat air patrol protecting the President of the United States and his family and guests,as well as their neighbors in Northern Maryland and South Central Pennsylvania.The F-15 banks to the left and the right before vanishing over the horizon.There may be another,unseen fighter aloft at a greater altitude also participating in the patrol.Suffice it to say,the Air National Guard F-15 had made my walk one of the safest in the world on that sunny morning. NORAD,the North American Aerospace Defense Command,is the binational U.S.-Canadian organization that monitors and defends the continent's sovereign airspace.

Crossing A Summer Field

I walk through a hay field just north of Camp David.With each afternoon step in near hundred degree Fahrenheit heat,hundreds of grasshoppers scatter.The grasshoppers are fine.It's what may lurk unseen that is troubling:venomous copperhead snakes;Lyme disease-carrying deer ticks;or Rocky Mountain spotted fever vector dog ticks.A hornet's nest may also be underfoot,along with the terribly poisonous brown recluse spider.
Fortunately,none of these threats are encountered.
Approaching the shallow streams at the west end of the field,the terrain is thickly matted dried grasses or rushes.The shallow streams seem to have dried up,but they are hazardous ditches obscured by the hummocks of dried vegetation,threatening a foot or leg injury.
Then again,the spiny and huge garlic mustard-not to mention the prickly teasel-present an obnoxious challenge.I think I am hearing an eastern coyote snarling from its day bed,but it stays in hiding.
An American bumble bee flies off a swamp milkweed,but doesn't seem angry with me.At one point,I realize I have lost my wallet.Fat chance of finding it in this thatchy place;yet incredibly I do just that,retracing my steps with only a little hope.

A NORAD Response to Intrusion

Working in my office one recent July morning,I heard a loud jet aircraft engine.It must be a fighter protecting Camp David,I thought.Indeed,a few moments later I observed the hefty warplane,an F-15E,heading south towards the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains.
The F-15E was actually one of two NORAD fighters that were intercepting a civilian plane intruding on restricted air space over and near the weekend White House.The NORAD interceptors escorted the intruder to Carroll County Regional Airport in Maryland.The pilot was interviewed by the U.S. Secret Service there and released,it having been determined he was blundering into the forbidden zone out of ignorance.A lengthy suspension of his pilot's certificate-typically 120 to 180 days-would follow.
There is always a 3 nautical mile/6.5 mile diameter prohibited area over the camp.When the president is at Camp David,the zone is expanded to 10 nautical miles/22 miles.Five of the nautical miles are totally off-limits;the outer 5 nautical miles are limited to specially cleared aircraft in communication with air traffic control,which the intruding Cessna 182 was not.
U.S. Marine guards provide terrestrial security at Camp David,which is administered by the U.S. Navy.
NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command,a joint U.S.-Canadian organization that is charged with monitoring and defending the air,space and,more recently,the maritime,approaches and domains of the continent.It is based at Peterson Air Force Base,Colorado.Admiral James A. Winnefeld,U.S. Navy,is Commander of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command,while Canadian Lieutenant-General J.M. Duval,CMM,CD is Deputy Commander of NORAD.The organization was established in 1958 and was formerly based in the hardened Cheyenne Mountain Air Station.Today,the mountain site is used by NORAD for training and as an alternate HQ,and day to day operations are conducted at Peterson AFB.
NORAD received heightened relevance during the 9-11 crisis,its Cold War urgency having passed from the scene as the Communist Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact disintegrated.